One reason is that it is intimidating to many of us. That is we do not know how to approach it or what even to say. The first thing to do is to arm yourself with some information. The bureau of Labor Statistics has median wages based on occupations and locations. After that one may try to improve our "skills" at negotiating. 49% of respondents from that Mint.com survey I mentioned earlier were either; lacking in confidence, lacking in negotiating skills or felt it was unpleasant. Our friends over at Flipyourglass.com have a few articles on how to change your pessimistic viewpoint to a more optimistic one. So the bottom line is to (1) Know your value (2) become more comfortable negotiating in general and (3) Become more optimistic